This week, marketers from across the bay area flock to On24’s second annual Webinar World conference to discuss strategies and best practices for using live content. The event features talks by leaders from companies like Gimlet Media, Salesforce, SiriusDecisions, and IBM Cloud, speaking on topics related to marketing strategy, webinar best practices, and webinar execution.

The event speaks to the standing of live content in the business world, which is becoming more ubiquitous as a key tool for the modern marketer. At this point, 73% of marketers (majority B2B) say that webinars are the best way to generate high-quality leads. 57% of marketers say they have live video in their content schedules for 2018. According to GoToWebinar’s 2017 Big Book of Webinar Stats, companies in industries from tech to real estate are producing as many as 23 webinars a year, on average, and seeing a huge impact on lead generation.

With competition heating up and more companies vying for the attention of potential professional leads, it’s important to stay on top of your game when you’re live streaming. Here are some important considerations to ensure you’re keeping up with the pros:

1. Production

You can spend next to nothing to stream from your phone, or hire an award-winning production company that will create an Oscar-caliber web series. There are tons of production companies who now specialize in live streaming. Some specialize in fashion, others in tech, music festivals, or webinars. You name it and there is a company who can do it. The question is, of course, what is your budget, what are your goals, and what does your audience expect from your industry? A typical one-camera shoot with a decent production company will run anywhere from $5000-$8000. A multi-camera shoot can range in the tens of thousands, and a midsize music concert starts at quarter million. On the other hand, as more and more brands are shooting compelling content on mobile phones, the cost of production is edging towards zero.

Chances are you already know what your audience expects from your industry. If not, check out what your competitors are live streaming. Are their streams shot from multiple angles? Do they have mics on their speakers? If you stray from the standard, be sure you’re adding value. Being the first to produce a well-lit and mic’d fireside chat when most of your industry is streaming Q&As from their laptops could give you a competitive edge.

2. Content

A typical viewer will drop off after 3 seconds if the content does not “speak to them”, so your digital story must becompelling – interesting, funny, relevant, useful, entertaining and hopefully all of the above. We’ve seen B2B marketers have a lot of success with the following forms of content:

A. Demos – Hosting a demo of your product allows potential customers to see what the product looks like and how it performs, foster interaction between your business and customers by allowing them to ask live questions and drive instantaneous interest. Couple that with a “buy now” button that links to an e-commerce backend and you’ve got instant conversions.

B. Educational Webinars – Reach new audiences by answering questions and addressing their professional challenges through educational webinars. Offer industry trends, new technologies, or new strategic insight, and establish your product as a solution.

B. Announcements – Live streaming has been a way to control the conversation in favor of the broadcaster. Break the news about new partnerships or products with live video.

C. Backstage Passes at Conferences – Major user conferences today are becoming more like concerts or festivals in terms of attracting dedicated customer fans. Give your users and leads a glimpse behind the scenes, with interviews and close-ups/exclusives with your most well-known speakers.

D. Product Launches – Similar to live streaming demos of your product, live streaming product launches can give users an opportunity to see your product and buy it all in the same place, without leaving their desk.

E. Industry Specific Thought Leadership – Enterprise companies such as Microsoft, Dell and GE are embracing live streaming at conferences and virtual events to showcase their thought leadership on topics such as data security, cloud computing and even drone engineering.

3. Platform

The universe of online video platforms expands beyond Facebook Live, Twitter, and YouTube. Platforms vary in terms of features, scalability, and target audience (for more information, check out Eight OVPs You Need To Know If You’re Marketing With Live Stream). Some considerations here would be your target audience and your goals in terms of scale and format. Some companies have partnerships with AmpLive and can facilitate large-scale distribution and audience targeting from within their platforms, while others will require an extra step. Other platforms are built for smaller, more intimate webinars that are mainly slide-based. For a B2B audience, just sticking to social media may not be your best option.

4. Distribution

If you’re putting on live virtual events and using live video, you probably already know that it’s tough to count on people to tune in at a specific time. B2B audiences in particular are busy, and it’s not always easy for them to discover your live stream on Facebook or Twitter during work hours. At the moment, the most common way to drive tune-in is still to send out invites to your email list and hope that people register and show up to your event. However, with marketing email open rates hovering around 18% across all industries and landing page bounce rates around 90% for most registration pages, this method is clearly not the most efficient. As live streaming becomes more ubiquitous, live content distribution companies have emerged, helping broadcasters find the scalable live audience for their content – in real time, regardless of their engagement on existing channels. Distribution tools (like AmpLive) help make sure you reach your target audience, even if they bounced or forgot to attend.

5. Analytics

Now that you’ve got eyeballs on your live stream, your job is done, right? No. It has only just begun. Who are these viewers? What do they like about my content? Do they want to hear from me again? Will they buy my product? These are all questions that can be answered with data collected from the moment the viewer engages with your content. Optimize your content strategy over time to deliver content that converts more efficiently. After the initial live stream, re-target your audience to drive them further down the sales funnel to result in conversions.

6. Retargeting

So, this is what matters in the end. You must back engagement with quantifiable results to prove ROI, and it all comes down to CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). How much do I have to spend in marketing dollars to get a paying customer? With growing live video distribution capabilities out there, you now have the tools to not only increase your reach, but retarget your audience based on engagement or segment, which can increase your chances of converting new leads through your live content.

Determining the right target audience is crucial for B2B content marketing, especially when using live. The right live stream audience can make the difference between having a positive or negative ROI on a live event into which you put tons of resources. Ensure you’re streaming to the right people by making sure these strategies line up with the goals of your live event.

Company

If you’re live streaming a product launch for a SaaS product or a B2B service, you probably already know what your dream accounts are. Target those companies specifically and increase your chances of pushing them further down the funnel through promotion and account-based distribution. Before your event, try to raise awareness and drive demand for your event through social media. LinkedIn, in particular, will be useful for getting your event in front of people from your target accounts. During your event, you can also make sure that people from your target accounts, or similar accounts, by serving your content to their employees all over the web. You can try to reach them on Facebook and Twitter by tagging them or get your live video in front of them on publisher sites across the web through a distribution service with Account Based Distribution capabilities.

Industry

It’s great to have target accounts that can guide your content strategy, but targeting specific accounts can be limiting when it comes to major exposure campaigns. Expand your audience and find new “dream accounts” by targeting based on industry. With LinkedIn, industry targeting and account-based targeting have historically been mutually exclusive, so you’ll need to approach promotion with a clear set of priorities. However, you can deliver your live content directly to both groups through a distribution tool during your event.

Job Title

It’s important to have specific accounts in mind when marketing your B2B product or service, but what makes that knowledge actionable is access to decision-makers within those companies. Want to get even more granular on that dream account of yours? Target particular employees and departments based on job title. LinkedIn will be a powerful tool for promotion. However, social media channels are not as adept at targeting by job title, so you’ll need to do more research to find individuals you want to target. You can also employ a distribution service with job title targeting. If you’re going for major exposure to new audiences that are segmented by job title, a distribution service will play an important role in guaranteeing exposure among your target job titles.

Age

We’ve touched on this before, and while it may apply more obviously to B2C marketing campaigns, targeting by age does still apply in a B2B or even an account-based setting. As with any marketing content, people will be receptive to different live video content based on their age and lived experience. Look at the event you’re planning on live streaming, and ask yourself: what age group would be the most receptive to this video? What kinds of references are you making? What kind of language are you using? Self-awareness is key when it comes to targeting by age. Knowing how different age groups will perceive your content can help you maximize efficiency and engagement when it comes time to distribute it to a target audience.

Location

Targeting by location is important for cultural reasons and in terms of streaming in the right language, but in the context of B2B marketing, it can also be an indicator of industry. For example, if you want to target marketing decision makers at tech start-ups, setting up your distribution to focus on the Bay Area could make for a more narrow and efficient distribution strategy.

Interests

Delivering content to an audience that is already interested in your topic of discussion is an obvious advantage, but just how granular can you get? Interest targeting can be as broad or specific as you need. When targeting for a live event with a more broad range of target audience members, follow suit with a broad targeting strategy. If you’re a B2B marketer trying to drive sales of your product, make sure to target people interested in software and tech.

Engagement

Targeting based on engagement can come into play before and/or after your live event. Before the event,pixel your registration landing page and build an audience of new people based on your registrant’s profiles, interest, etc. This can help refresh your contact list, and find new audience members who might be receptive to your message. Also, place a pixel on your live stream to follow up with your engaged audience after your event. This can increase your chances of converting target viewers.

On a high level, audience targeting is what allows you to be picky about who sees your content. But after a closer look, one can see the true power of proper targeting. Building an audience of people who are interested in your product and ready to buy is a marketer’s dream, and you can do it time and time again. For more on audience building be sure to check out this blog. And for access to all of the above targeting strategies and many more, visit the newly released AmpLive Platform today!

1. Embrace the fact that your content is live.

You probably already know that live broadcasting has the unique ability to capitalize on a sense of FOMO. The simple fact that your event won’t be live forever brings a fear of missing out that can’t be replicated in VOD programming. In sports, it’s missing that amazing play unfold before your eyes. You have just as much information as anyone else about what’s going to happen, and you get to share in the excitement when a player scores or makes a great save. In entertainment, it’s the feeling of connection with a celebrity when you seeing your favorite song performed or hear them address your question in a Q&A.

B2B marketers especially understand that, in the world of business, being in the know is vital. What’s more, being among the first to know gives you an edge. So, giving people the chance to view new content at the moment it’s released can be a major audience driver. If you are doing live, be in the now. Don’t give a presentation about things that everyone already knows about. Unveil something new. Give people the chance to ask questions and interact with a powerful industry leader. Make your event the type of event that would be a real shame to miss out on (once word gets out, people won’t want to miss any events you do in the future either).

2. Don’t hide your live content.

As marketers, it can be easy for us to get deep into pieces of content, and miss seeing the forest for the trees. You can produce and stream the most engaging live content ever, but if you make people dig around and search for it, they may not ever see it.

Don’t bury your embedded video in 3 or 4 links deep on your site. Create landing pages where the content is immediately displayed. Post links to the landing pages on your social media. Link them to any digital advertisements you might be invested in. Convenience can be a key to obtaining and retaining your viewers.

3. Have a distribution plan.

While content is important, it’s only really as good as the audience it draws. In this respect, distribution is the name of the game. Building audience is about putting your content in front of relevant eyes, which is only possible with the help of powerful networks. Forge partnerships with other blogs and broadcasters to carry each other’s programming. And, of course, post on your social media accounts. The goal should be to tap into as many different outlets as possible.

Create a budget so that you can market and distribute your live content to target audiences on a larger scale using distribution tools with well-developed audience networks. Find a distribution tool that is partnered with major publications. Get your content onto sites that your target audience frequents, so you can reach new people who might not know about you yet. Of course, be sure to put some thought into who your target audience might be and what kinds of sites they may frequent (it may help to ask yourself these questions before you stream).

4. Program regularly.

Having a consistent programming schedule is key. Make yourself a part of peoples’ schedules, and you will drive larger audiences and increase social interaction. Live will always be more engaging if you have a rhythm going with your audience, and you’ve put in the time to establish relationships with them.

This is especially important for enterprise companies in the tech space. In an industry that’s constantly moving forward, it’s not easy to stay relevant and at the forefront of the industry. Show your audience that you’re growing and developing along with the industry by streaming regular updates and product launches, and let them know that you value their opinion by asking for it. Address questions and concerns live.

Hubspot is a great example of a company using live content to interact with their target audience. Through Hubspot Academy, Hubspot live streams fireside chats and webinars two to three times a month. Through these “Master Class” events, Hubspot can interact with marketers through Q&As on topics like content consumption, paid advertising, automation, and viral content.

Our marketing team tunes in all the time to learn about what’s going on in the industry. And we’re definitely not alone. This regular, quality programming brings in solid, engaged audiences every time.

This is great exposure for Hubspot, as you can imagine. They get a chance to discuss the problems that their product solves while providing value to their target audience (not that the classes are about Hubspot products — they rarely are — but such is the nature of inbound marketing). They can also increase exposure by using the networks of their viewers through the hashtag #HubspotMasterClass.

5. Learn from and about your audience.

With the ease of today’s content creation, audiences are more diverse than ever. Make sure you’re collecting and paying attention to audience metrics. This will let you know whether or not your target audience is engaging with your content, and may give you some insight into which parts of your content are working and which elements aren’t.

Finally, take the time to survey your audience. Ask for feedback and engage with your viewers on a regular basis. The more interactive your broadcast is, the deeper the connection with your audience will be.

Webinars can be a powerful tool for delivering your company’s message, educating your users and clients, and giving potential leads more information to help them learn your product. It’s no wonder so many people are integrating webinars into their marketing strategies.

Over the past couple years we’ve worked with a lot of businesses on their webinar promotion and distribution, and have come to recognize three very common challenges. If any of these things sound familiar, have no fear! You aren’t doing anything wrong, and you aren’t alone. However, you may want to consider making a few adjustments and seeking some support to get yourself over the hump.

1. Contact List Fatigue

It’s fairly common to see contact lists converting less over time. You may notice that not as many people are opening or clicking on your webinar invites, or more people are unsubscribing from your emails.

There are plenty of reasons for this. One reason could be the number of emails you’re sending. Email frequency is a huge contributor to contact list fatigue. According to SendGrid’s 2017 Global Email Benchmark Report, most industries found that 8.1 emails a month resulted in the highest open and click-through rates. This number went down since 2016 as industries found that emails performed better when they were sent with less frequency. If you’re sending more than around 8 emails a month, you might want to consider trying fewer emails for a few months and seeing if that helps your engagement rates.

You also may want to run tests to see if a different sender or subject line style performs better with your list. Mix it up! Maybe your contacts just need to see something different.

Regardless of the reason for your contact list fatigue, it’s clearly time for you to get some fresh eyes on your content. With an audience pixel, you can build a lookalike audience of people who fit the profile of your organic audience but may not know about you yet. Same interests, same goals, less fatigued and more ready to hear what you have to say.

This is all to say, there are things you can try to bring your old audience back, but it’s also important to freshen up your database with new leads. Lagging database engagement doesn’t have to impact the visibility of your webinar, so don’t let it!

2. High Bounce Rate For Registration Page

Most landing pages convert at only about 10% or below. Where does that other 90% go? They may have shown initial interest, but for whatever reason, they didn’t fill out the form to register for your webinar. In other words, they bounced.

Maybe your form was a little long and it intimidated potential guests. As a rule, it’s important to understand the value of your content in the eyes of potential registrants. Will they think it’s worth it to fill out a form that’s longer than three fields? Will they be willing to give up their phone number, or other personal information? These are important questions to ask (Hubspot has some great advice if you think your form might be a problem).

Perhaps the page took too long to load and your potential registrant gave up, or maybe it loaded and something about the page layout just didn’t sit quite right. Test out different layouts, and make sure your page isn’t taking much longer than about 2 seconds to load.

There are a number of potential culprits for a high bounce rate on a registration page, but a high bounce rate doesn’t need to reduce your audience size. If you’re pixeling your audience and using a distribution service, you can tag potential viewers and make sure your content finds them during the event. After a few minutes of watching your webinar, they’ll be more likely to convert. And even if they don’t convert this time around, your brand will get valuable attention and your content will be seen by people who have already demonstrated interest.

3. Attendance Rate Drop-Off

Around 50% of webinar registrants don’t actually attend the live event. People get busy with other projects or they forget that they’d planned to attend.

Attendance rates can be lowered by lots of factors, like requiring software downloads to access the webinar, or not setting up a system to remind people before the event begins. A good rule of thumb is to make sure you have reminders set to go out the week, day, and hour before the event (sometimes it helps to remind people up as soon as five minutes before your webinar begins, but I’d always advise running tests to see how your particular audience responds to different approaches and frequencies).

Regardless of the reason for their low attendance rate, clearly your registrants are interested in the topic you plan to cover. They wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of filling out a form if they weren’t. Don’t worry about making them come to your content if they didn’t tune in. Recapture a larger percentage of your intended audience by pixeling them and then bringing your content to their favorite sites.

If any of these challenges sound familiar, just remember that you aren’t alone, and you have options. Keep on testing and learning, and make sure you have a plan or service in place to make sure you’re not losing potential leads. Good luck!

The amount of available live streams on the internet increases drastically every day. As more marketers and broadcasters find it to be a useful medium, more of them are adopting streaming into their business strategies. As with most marketing initiatives, streaming is an exposure play, content creators want the maximum number of eyes on their content. But in today’s day and age, one must create an eye-catching live stream to get the viewer’s attention within the first few seconds of viewing.

Video consistently performs better than other kinds of digital advertising media online, but it’s still important to stand out from other marketers breaking into the live video game.

Here are some tips and tricks for making sure you create an eye-catching live stream that viewers will see.

1. If you have the budget, consider paying for professional production.

You can spend next to nothing to stream from your phone or hire an award-winning production company that will create an Oscar-worthy web series. There are now production companies that focus on live streaming. Some specialize in fashion, others in tech, music festivals, or company webinars. So, which is best for you? Well, that depends on budget.

For example, a typical one-camera shoot with a decent production company will run anywhere from $5000-$8000. On the other hand, as more and more brands are shooting compelling content on mobile phones, the cost of production is edging towards 0. But before you decide to go the iPhone route, be sure that you’re providing higher content value in exchange for the loss in production value.

2. Build FOMO with your live content.

People gravitate to a live experience. The fact that a video is live and will end at some point already contributes to viewers’ fear of missing out, so make sure your video’s frame or background clearly indicates that the stream is live. A countdown to the end can increase this effect even more.

If you want to stand out from other live content, there are some additional steps you can take as well. Make sure your content provides the viewer with an incentive to stay in your audience. By placing special announcements or giveaways at the end of a stream, the viewer’s F.O.M.O will hopefully force them to stay until you close the proverbial curtain (of course, be sure you’ve made it clear that this is what you plan on doing so people know they have something to wait for).

3. Involve relevant influencers.

Content promoted by influencers can be especially eye-catching. For example, when Home Depot wanted to boost holiday sales, they found that having Martha Stewart on screen during a live event helped attract a large audience. Give your audience an opportunity to engage with a recognizable face in a live context.

This is especially useful for events that are meant to raise awareness or funds for a cause. Each year, 24 Hours of Climate Reality with Al Gore regularly garners millions of viewers (check out this case study to learn more). Of course, this is in part due to the topic, but the presence of Al Gore and celebrity hosts can be the thing that first catches a viewer’s eye.

4. Emphasize personal interaction with your audience.

Ultimately, your live stream is about communication, and just like any other interaction, it’s important to use body language that indicates that you (or whoever is on camera) care about what you’re talking about and how your audience feels. Make eye contact. Lean in. Try to move around. Take advantage of the fact that your content is live and in motion.

5. Most Importantly … Know Your Audience!

With the ease of today’s content creation, audiences are more diverse than ever. Take the time to survey your audience, ask for feedback and engage with your viewers on a regular basis. The more interactive your broadcast is, the deeper the connection with your audience will be.

For example, if you run a broadcast focusing on the current political climate, maybe tone down the on-screen elements. Your target viewers will likely be attracted to a more serious aesthetic, and minimizing on-screen distractions can help them focus more on the meat of your content. If you plan on streaming a holiday crafting session, create a seasonal frame that gets people excited about the time of year.

Webinars, panels, and conference keynotes tend to perform best when there is a dynamic, professional-looking, preferably recognizable leader on screen talking, while powerpoints are less dynamic and don’t fully grasp the attention of professional audiences. As I mentioned earlier, you want to take advantage of the fact that you’re working in a medium that incorporates motion. Why turn your dynamic content into something stationary? If you can, avoid motionless, text-heavy elements.

What’s more, what you learn from how your audience reacts to your live stream will provide valuable information about what kind of content, influencers, frames, and layouts will perform well for future live events. Make sure you have access to a platform that provides you with analytics and specific information about your audience.

Every marketer knows that it’s not enough to just produce content or run an event. We can all easily answer the age-old philosophical question of the tree falling in the forest when it applies to our marketing endeavors. If there’s no one there to hear it, it doesn’t make a sound.

When it comes to live video content, this fact is particularly obvious. However, without the proper tools it can be difficult to keep track of potential audience members, content consumers, and leads. This is where tracking pixels come in.

What Is A Tracking Pixel?

Tracking pixels are tiny 1x1px images contained in snippets of code that can be added to your web pages to measure your organic traffic, track the behavior of your site visitors, and assess the overall health of your marketing campaigns. They are usually designed to be invisible and load when a user enters your site. Tracking pixels are used by most major platforms that have marketing tools. Facebook and LinkedIn offer pixels to marketers and recruiters to keep track of their ad campaigns, for example.

How Can I Use Tracking Pixels For My Live Events?

Use Tracking Pixels to Build Your Target Audience

In the context of live streaming, they can be used for audience development and then conversion through retargeting. Maybe your old contacts aren’t responding the way they used to. If that’s the case, it’s probably time to look for some fresh eyes.

When marketers come to boost their live streams through AmpLive, we always recommend that they place an audience pixel on as many pages as possible for the purpose of developing an audience for their future live event. Once the pixel is placed, it can be used to collect information about a company’s current organic audience and will allow us to find lookalike audiences within AmpLive’s network.

Using a pixel to understand your current organic audience and build a larger audience allows for a more informed distribution strategy. As you know, marketing campaigns are only as strong as the audience they attract. In other words, better audiences equal better ROI. Gather audiences of the people who are visiting your site, in addition to your target audience, to reach people who are already interested in what you have to offer. This can lead to better conversion rates.

2. Use Tracking Pixels to Capture Your Organic Audience

You may notice that your registration page is getting lots of hits, but visitors aren’t filling out the form to sign up. Use tracking pixels to make sure more of those visitors see the live stream of your event when it’s happening, or see a recording once it’s over. That way, you can capture more audience members who showed interest but maybe weren’t ready to convert just yet.

3. Learn What Converts Your Audience to Leads

Not only can pixels track site traffic, some tracking pixels can be used to keep track of actions taken on your pages.For example, the AmpLive conversion pixel allows you to track specific user actions after a user arrives on your landing page via our network. If the conversion pixel is placed on a “confirmation” or “thank you” page, you can keep track of form submissions, purchases, subscriptions, registrations, downloads, or any other indicators of conversion.

This is where you measure the real return on investment for your live stream. As you probably already know, running an A/B test can be very informative, and indicate how you could increase conversion rates for your next live event. By tracking conversions from different boosted events, you can gain valuable insight into the types of creative frames, target audiences, or types of events (keynote addresses, panels, workshops…etc) you should stream more of in the future.

As a general rule for marketers, when it comes to data, more is more. Tracking pixels are a way to gather more data to help you be the best event marketer you can be.

Across industry, sector, and era, marketers always strive for the same basic elements of success. We need to attract the attention of a target audience, deliver a clear message about our product, and differentiate ourselves from our competition.

Since the first video ad ran over a baseball stadium in 1941, video has consistently proven to be a highly effective way of reaching these basic marketing goals. It’s no surprise that video is projected to comprise up to 79% of online traffic by 2020.

Live content takes the success and prominence of video as a marketing medium to a whole new level.

How Are Marketers Using Live Content To Reach Target Audiences?

In the context of business to consumer marketing, live streaming allows companies to engage with audiences in real time, and empowers consumers to ask questions about products and engage with brand ambassadors on a personal level. For example, in 2016 Walmart used live streaming to sell out of an HP laptop during the holidays. Through live streaming, consumers could watch a live demonstration of the product online at the moment that they were considering purchasing it. The live element provided a sense of urgency that contributed to increased sales. Martha Stewart Living and Home Depot teamed up to execute a similar holiday marketing strategy, live streaming a holiday DIY event and demonstrating the products on sale to a live audience of hundreds of thousands of consumers.

Live streaming also allows companies in the b2b space to amplify messaging from their conferences and product launches, increasing impact for live marketing events. For example, this past year Microsoft live streamed dozens of developer and user conferences, and put their products and messaging in front of almost 13 million current and potential future customers. Salesforce also live streamed over 15 major events, including their annual user conference, Dreamforce. Dreamforce allows for hundreds of thousands of users to gather and be a part of the organization’s community, and live streaming allowed millions to be a part of it from a distance.

Live content keeps users up to date and helps people feel like they’re part of the community, even if they can’t be present for the physical event. Marketers across America held parties in their offices to watch the holiday marketing webinar put on by the Small Business Administration, Constant Contact, Google, Facebook, and Square. Live streaming facilitates this kind of long-distance community building in a way that no other marketing medium really can.

Like the rest of the global marketing community, Advertising Week organizers also recognize the importance of live streaming their global conferences. Advertising Week speakers can now amplify their messaging beyond the confines of the physical event, and reach millions of marketers and advertisers, expanding the conversation and growing the global community of engaged marketers and advertisers. Live facilitates this kind of growth in a unique and powerful way.

How Can You Maximize Return On Investment For Your Live Event?

Like all content, your live stream is only as valuable as the attention it attracts. So, you want to be sure you’re reaching a large audience. What’s more, you want to make sure you’re reaching and engaging a large number of the right people.

To do this, you probably already know that you need to spend some time determining your target audience and where they might be found online. Know what their online landscape looks like.

After that, distribution is the name of the game. Make sure your live event is displayed online in places where your target audience likes to go. Take advantage of platforms that can ensure maximum viewership and precise targeting, and then make sure to retarget your engaged viewers so you aren’t forgotten.

For the past year, the AmpLive team has been hard at work collecting feedback, re-imagining and building a new platform with exciting features and insights that help marketers make better decisions for live events. With AmpLive’s new platform, we’ve focused on making it easy for users to boost live content on their own with a more intuitive interface and self-service options. Expect more control over the distribution of your boosted content.

We built the platform from the ground up for and by marketers. It’s faster and easier to use than ever before. Promote an event in just minutes with our completely redesigned boost flow. One click changes to events. Break timing into multiple segments to drive more traffic towards key moments in your broadcast. No PhD necessary.

Drive Conversion with Actionable Audience Insights

You may have experienced email list fatigue or your attendance rate is dropping. Now with the AmpLive Pixel, you can engage your core audience and bring them back to your live event so that they can hear your message. And, when you log into AmpLive, you can expect to see rich, real-time audience insights that will provide you with a deep, more actionable understanding of viewers and of your event. We’ve expanded the platform to focus on the 3 core parts of setting up your distribution strategy for live video.

Target Over 30 Million Professionals by Company and Job Title

We have also optimized and have created a stronger distribution network so that we can continue to drive millions of engaged viewers to your live event. We are introducing Account Based Distribution so that you can target those companies with your live events and expand your reach to a targeted audience. Currently, we’ve identified over 8,000 companies and 22 job titles across over 100 industries so you can fine tune your distribution to over 30M professionals. Lastly, we added major improvements to our audience retargeting technology.

More importantly, we have made every segment, job title, company, engagement rate, and characteristic actionable. With this update, you can control every aspect of communication with those folks that tuned-in to your event through our retargeting tools.

Access On The Go

Also, to help you get answers quickly, we’ve launched a companion mobile app to the AmpLive platform for real-time analytics wherever you are.

We would like to invite you to be one of the first to learn more about our powerful new tools and request a demo before we go live in February.

These improvements are just the beginning. We’re excited about our 2018 roadmap with more core features to help you connect with a qualified audience. Check out the new platform and let us know if you have any feedback or product features you would like to see next. Grab a demo slot and let’s talk.

This is an intense time of year for marketers. First of all, there’s the obvious commercial opportunity inherent in gift-giving holidays. If you’re a B2C company that manages to stand out in people’s minds when they’re doing their holiday shopping, it can be extremely valuable and lucrative. Also, it’s the end of one year and the beginning of another, so there are lots of opportunities to tell people about what you accomplished in the past year as a company, or what you plan to do the future. It’s a great time to remind customers that they’re important to you and to grab the attention of new people looking to try things in the new year.

As marketers, we’re all looking for an extra edge around this time of year. So, how can you use live streaming to boost your marketing efforts? Here are a few things other companies have done:

As with all content marketing, providing value is the name of the game when it comes to marketing with live content during the holidays. For B2B companies, helping businesses succeed during the holidays is a great way to garner good will and raise brand awareness among potential customers. The holidays are a great time to live stream instructional webinars and trainings.

For example, in November the U.S. Small Business Administration Tech Coalition – Google, Constant Contact, Facebook and Square all teamed up to create a marketing seminar in time to help businesses with their holiday marketing efforts. The Marketing Wonderland Holiday ‘17 Seminar was a 2-hour workshop that took place in the morning on a Wednesday and was a great opportunity for many small businesses to come together to learn marketing strategy from some of the biggest names in business. The live stream allowed Google, Constant Contact, Facebook and Square to educate potential customers across the country on holiday marketing techniques (that may or may not have included paid technical services and products).

Live Stream A Demo Of Gifts (HP & Walmart)

A product demo can be a great way to inspire brand awareness during the holiday season. What better way to get people excited about what you have to offer than to show them? And with live streaming, you can give people the opportunity to ask questions about your products and see how they work before they buy them online.

For example, HP and Walmart used live streaming to sell out the new HP Laptop in time for the holidays. In order to garner more participation and engagement than they saw with traditional QVC and home shopping network models, the two companies looked to live streaming. With the help of an online video platform and distributor (AmpLive), they were able to have the audience participate, ask questions, pre-order, and purchase the items up for sale, all during the live event.

Through a strong targeting and distribution strategy, HP & Walmart saw huge live audiences and ultimately sold out of the new HP Laptop.

Live Stream A Holiday Special (Martha Stewart & Home Depot)

Live streaming a holiday special can work for entertainers and big brands alike. This can be a year-end review of your company’s successes, a plan for the next year, a concert, or an interactive workshop.

One great example of a successful holiday marketing campaign is the 2015 partnership between Martha Stewart and Home Depot. At the time, leading up to the holidays, Home Depot was looking to diversify and expand its audience, and Martha Stewart was looking to launch a new line of products (Martha Stewart Living Collection) at Home Depot.

In order to reach the affluent DIY-er audience that was the target for both brands, marketers for Home Depot and Martha Stewart Living Collection organized a live DIY workshop sponsored by Home Depot and hosted by Martha Stewart herself. The live stream reached millions, and the campaign led to a large boost in web traffic and awareness for both brands.

In short, if you’re looking to stand out with your marketing efforts around the holidays, getting creative and strategic with a live event is a great way to do it!

Companies are constantly trying to find new ways to reach their audience, market their products, and stay relevant. In the current content marketing landscape, the number of distribution channels can be overwhelming. From blog posts to social media, marketing teams are always trying to keep their content fresh and interesting. In the midst of these options, live streaming often goes underutilized. From product rollouts to flagship user conferences, live streaming can be of the most versatile marketing motions in the industry.

Let’s go over 3 examples of how large corporations can use live streaming in their everyday marketing:

#1: Go Where Your Audience Is (Apple)

Finding a target audience can be difficult enough, but actually reaching that audience is another beast altogether. The best way to reach people is to market them in the places where they are already browsing. By marketing your products to your target audience where they hang out the most (the internet), your chances of garnering their attention increase substantially. Apple is possibly the world’s most recognizable brand. Of all the major product releases we see every year, the seemingly annual announcement of the latest iPhone stands alone. While the conference is always impressive on its own, Apple’s distribution strategy is what sets it apart. Aside from Safari, all other internet browsers, including Chrome, are blocked from streaming the announcement. The most important demographic for this announcement is iPhone users who do not have the newest devices and use Safari. Therefore, they are the ones who will see the announcement.

#2: Exposure via social media (Brands at CES)

All promotion is good promotion, especially when it’s free. All you need to live stream a demo of a product or platform is a cell phone and a social media account. Leverage your company’s global notoriety to get in front of eyes. 1m twitter followers are 1m free eyes that have already chosen to view your content on a regular basis. Now that all of the major social media platforms (FB, Twitter, Instagram) offer a live streaming function, it’s become even easier. When combined, those platforms generate billions of video views every day. With the built-in targeting strategies that these platforms offer one can narrow down that audience of billions into thousands of more qualified viewers.

For example, at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, many brands use the CES hashtag to get exposure for videos of people engaging with their products at the event.

#3: Cheaper product roll-outs (Texas Armoring Corporation)

Companies spend millions rolling out their newest products. Billboards and other more typical forms of paid media are archaic. If you go viral live streaming an innovative product launch, the free promotion lasts forever.

In late 2014, one Texas company saw the true power of going viral: Texas Armoring Corporation, a bulletproofing and vehicle armoring company, filmed a product test in quite the unique way. In an effort to show the degree of faith in their product, the CEO sat in the driver’s seat of an SUV while it was riddled with bullets from an assault rifle. At the end of the video, he simply exits the vehicle and implores you to get in contact if you’re interested. The video went quickly went viral, reaching over 17 million views since its release. That exposure was surely worth the cost of the windshield.